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JOHN COTTON 

1585 - 1633 - 1652 



EXERCISES 
AT THE UNVEILING OF 

THE JOHN COTTON MEMORIAL 

IN 

THE BERKELEY STREET EDIFICE OF 

THE FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON 

I, 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1907 



B O ST O N : 

NATHAN SAWYER & SON, PRINTERS, 

41 Pearl Street, cor. Franklin. 

1908. 






Gift 



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2 D '08 



COTTON MEMORIAL 



The memorial to John Cotton, provided 
through contributions from his descendants, 
was unveiled and transferred to the First 
Church in Boston in the edifice of the Society, 
corner of Berkeley and Marlborough Streets, 
on the afternoon of Thursday, October 10, 
1907. The facts connected with the incep- 
tion of this memorial, together with the 
program of exercises and addresses on its 
final presentation, are fully set forth in the 
following papers, printed in their chronologi- 
cal sequence : 

I. Circular Letter of June 1, 1905, 

ADDRESSED TO THE COTTON DESCEN- 
DANTS. 

II. Similar Letter of September 26, 
1907. 

III. Program of Exercises at Berkeley 

Street Church, Thursday, Octo- 
ber 10, 1907. 

IV. Address of Mr. Frothingham. 
V. Address of Mr. Adams. 

VI. Address of Mr. Park. 
VII. List of Contributors. 

This statement in detail is now submitted 
not only to contributors to the memorial but to 
the Cotton descendants generally, in a form 
convenient for permanent preservation. 



Boston, June 1, 1905. 
To the Descendants of 

the Reverend John Cotton: 

John Cotton, enjoying at once the advan- 
tages of birth, abihty and education, was 
among the most eminent divines of that 
period when divinity was held in highest 
esteem. As a theologian his authority was 
great. As an organizer his skill was so 
widely recognized that, long after his depar- 
ture to America, he was remembered in 
Great Britain as the originator of that dis- 
tinctive system of church polity known as 
" The New England Way.'' 

In 1612 he was chosen vicar of St. Bo- 
tolph's Church in the English Boston. Re- 
nowned for his eloquence, he labored there 
for nearly twenty years; but in July, 1633, 
his Puritan views and sympathies led to the 
resignation of his incumbency, and departure 
to Massachusetts followed almost immedi- 
ately. In his history. Governor Winthrop 
notes: "1633, September 4. Arrived the 
'Griffin,' having on board John Cotton." 
Almost at once chosen teacher of the Boston 
church, of which the Rev. John Wilson 
was already the pastor, he held that posi- 
tion until his death, December 23, 1652. 



6 COTTON MEMORIAL 

"Borne on the shoulders of his brother 
ministers to the last resting-place/' his body- 
was deposited "in a tomb of brick'' in the 
north corner of what is now known in Boston 
as King's Chapel Graveyard. But no tablet 
there records the fact, nor does any monu- 
ment or inscription elsewhere in America 
commemorate John Cotton's great and valu- 
able work. 

Fifty years ago a memorial to Cotton was 
erected in the church of St. Botolph. It 
took form in the restoration of a chapel in 
that ancient edifice, and the placing of a 
commemorative tablet bearing a Latin in- 
scription prepared by the late Edward 
Everett, whose wife was a descendant of 
the Teacher. The cost of this memorial, 
about $3,400, was defrayed by descendants 
and others in New England, and by Ameri- 
cans resident in London. 

Now, more than two and a half centuries 
after Cotton's death, it is proposed to place 
a suitable memorial to him in the edifice in 
Boston occupied by that First Church of 
which he was teacher. A full-length recum- 
bent figure in marble (of a design familiar 
to those who have visited the cathedrals 
of Europe and the larger parish churches 
in England), bearing an appropriate inscrip- 
tion, has been recommended and approved. 
A suggestion of its finished appearance is 
herewith submitted. The extreme cost 
is estimated at $8,000. It is confidently 



COTTON MEMORIAL 7 

believed this sum can be raised by gen- 
eral subscription, and that the statue 
may be formally dedicated at a reunion of 
John Cotton's descendants to be held in 
Boston, September 4, 1906, the anniversary 
of his arrival in New England. Assurances 
covering one-half of the necessary amount 
have been received. It is, however, desired 
that the memorial should represent contri- 
butions from as many as possible of the 
Teacher's descendants. General subscriptions, 
irrespective of amount, are, therefore, ear- 
nestly solicited. 

The committee having the matter in 
charge consists of the Rev. James Eells, 
successor to Cotton in the First Church, 
Charles Francis Adams and John E. Thayer, 
both descendants. 

Charles Stanhope Cotton. 
William Everett. 
John Chipman Gray. 
Francis Lee Higginson. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
Peter C. Jones. 
Robert Treat Paine. 
Charles Sprague Sargent. 
Nathaniel Thayer. 



II. 

Boston, September 26, 1907. 

To the Descendants of 

the Reverend John Cotton: 
Over two years ago, under date of June 1, 
1905, a signed circular was sent to the de- 
scendants of John Cotton, so far as they 
could be ascertained, calling attention to 
the fact that neither by tablet nor monu- 
ment was the great and valuable work of 
that most eminent of the early New England 
divines anywhere commemorated in America. 
It was accordingly proposed now to place an 
adequate memorial in the present edifice of 
the First Church on Berkeley Street, Boston, 
of which church Cotton was teacher. A 
full-length recumbent figure in marble, of 
the kind familiar to all who have visited the 
cathedrals of Europe or the larger parish 
churches of England, was suggested. The 
cost thereof was estimated at $8,000, and 
contributions, wholly irrespective of amount, 
were solicited from as many as possible of 
the Teacher^s descendants, the addresses of 
some tvv^o hundred and fifty of whom were 
obtained. A hope was also expressed that 
the memorial might be completed and in- 
stalled as early as September 4, 1906, the 
anniversary of Cotton's arrival at Boston. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 9 

The Rev. James Eells, successor to Cotton 
in the pulpit of the First Church, and the 
undersigned, two of his descendants, took 
the matter in charge. The response to the 
proposal was such as to warrant the prepa- 
ration of a design, and the taking of such 
other steps as seemed desirable. The under- 
standing then was that all work of detail 
connected with the project — necessarily con- 
siderable — would be assumed by Mr. Eells. 
As he, however, subsequently withdrew from 
the pastorate of the First Church, the 
entire labor, including correspondence and 
the collection of funds, devolved upon 
the remaining members of the committee. 
For efficient aid, cheerfully rendered, in 
this onerous and disagreeable work, the 
committee are under great obligation to 
Mr. Frank E. Cotton, of Maiden. Mr. Cotton 
does not trace a descent from the Teacher, 
except possibly through a female; but, one 
of offspring of William Cotton, of Ports- 
mouth, N.H., a contemporary, though not 
a relative of the Teacher, he has made a 
special study of the Cotton genealogies. 

The order for the sculptured figure was 
finally placed with Mr. Bela L. Pratt; and 
Messrs. Peabody & Stearns, of Boston, were 
commissioned to prepare a design for the 
base and the architectural surroundings. It 
had been further suggested that it would be 
highly appropriate if some fragment of the 
famous St. Botolph church should be ob- 



10 COTTON MEMORIAL 

tained from the English Boston, to form a 
part of the masonry upon which the sculp- 
ture was to rest. The task of securing such 
a fragment was assumed by one of the 
committee, then planning a European trip. 
Perfecting the figure occupied more time 
than the sculptor had anticipated; and the 
fragment from the St. Botolph church was 
not secured until October, 1906. Shortly 
before the installation (November 7, 1906) 
of the present pastor, Mr. Park, the com- 
pleted marble was temporarily placed in the 
Berkeley Street church. The stone from 
St. Botolph was not received until a later 
day, being delayed at the place of shipment, 
at the custom-house on its arrival, etc. 
Removed in course of necessary work of 
repair from the great East portal of the edi- 
fice, this fragment, much worn by action of 
the elements, must date from the original 
construction of the church in the early 
years of the fourteenth century (1307-50); 
and, unquestionably, three centuries later it 
formed a part of the main entrance during 
all the years John Cotton was vicar of 
St. Botolph. This relic, built into the base 
below the figure, will at once be identified 
in the photograph which accompanies the 
present circular. Owing to the inconvenience 
which the work of placing the memorial in 
its edifice must necessarily occasion the 
Society, it was delayed until the recent 
summer vacation. This work now com- 




The Cotton Memorial. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 11 

pleted, the effigy rests in its permanent 
position. 

Both as a tribute and as a work of art, it 
is confidently believed that there is nothing 
in America more worthy. The single similar 
memorial with which it might be brought 
into comparison is Valentine's impressive 
and well-known recumbent figure of General 
Robert E. Lee, in the chapel of the Wash- 
ington and Lee University, at Lexington, Va. 

As is not unseldom the case, the cost of the 
work increased as its plan developed, and 
ultimately exceeded the estimate of the 
committee. After all expenses have been 
defrayed, the aggregate expended will be in 
the neighborhood of $9,200. 

Contributions varying in amount from 
one dollar to $1,000 were received from 
seventy-two different descendants, aggregat- 
ing $5,771.* A statement of the sources from 
which contributions came is hereby sub- 
mitted, together with an account of receipts 
and disbursements. 



At the suggestion of the present pastor 
and members of the First Church in Boston 
exercises in connection with the final unveil- 
ing of the memorial will be held at the 
Berkeley Street edifice at 4 p.m., on the 

* These figures were subsequently largely increased, as 
appears in detail in statement — VII. — at the close of this pub- 
lication. 



12 COTTON MEMORIAL 

afternoon of October 10, the two hundred 
and seventy-fourth anniversary of the in- 
stallation of Cotton as teacher, in 1633. 
A program and invitation to attend will 
be sent by the Society to every Cotton 
descendant whose address can be ascertained. 

Teacher John Cotton has now waited two 
full centuries and three-quarters of a third 
century for his memorial. It is hoped that 
a numerous gathering of his descendants 
will do reverence to the memory of their 
ancestor on the coming occasion. 

A photograph of the memorial as it now 
appears is enclosed, together with a copy 
of the inscription on the wall, inmaediately 
above the recumbent figure, and in rear of it. 

Charles Francis Adams. 
John E. Thayer. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 13 

INSCRIPTION 

JOHN COTTON. 

Bom in Derbyshire, England, 

December 4, 1585 

He died in the Colony of Massachusetts-bay 

December 23, 1652 

Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge 
1607 

Vicar of the Church of Saint Botolph, 

Boston, Lincolnshire 

1612-1633 

Regardless of Preferment and 

Conspicuous as a Puritan Divine 

He became the object of Prelatical Persecution 

"Una wed by influence and unbribed by gain" 

He then sought refuge in New England 

Ordained immediately on his arrival 

He ministered to his death as 

Teacher of the Boston Church 

1633-1652. 

— Scholar — Theologian • — Preacher — Publicist — 

He gave form and inspiration to 

The Ecclesiastical Policy known as 

''The New England Way" 

Preceptor and Friend of Vane 
From him Cromwell sought counsel 

Living, he was revered as 

''That Apostle of his Age" 

Dead, he is remembered as 

" Patriarch of the Massachusetts Theocracy." 

His Descendants in the Seventh and Eighth Generations 

Have erected this Memorial 

1907. 



III. 



FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON 

1630 



ORDER OF EXERCISES 

FOR THE PRESENTATION OF 
THE JOHN COTTON MEMORIAI. 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER lO, 1907 

AT FOUR O'CLOCK 



ORDER OF SERVICE 



ORGAN PRELUDE, 

Allegro Maestoso (from Fantasie Sonata in A-flat major), 
Rheinberger. 

ANTHEM The Choie. 

"The Lord is my Light, my Strength, and my Salvation," 
Horatio Parker, 



INVOCATION, 
Reverend Edward Everett Hale, D.D., LL.D. 

ADDRESS, 
Reverend Paul Revere Frothingham. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 15 

HYMN The Congregation. 

" For all thy saints, O Lord," Richard Mant. 

For all thy saints, O Lord, 

Who strove in thee to live, 

Who followed thee, obeyed, adored, 

Our grateful hymn receive. 

For all thy saints, O Lord, 
Accept our thankful cry, 
Who counted thee their great reward, 
And strove in thee to die. 

They all in life and death. 
With thee, their Lord in view, 
Learned from thy Holy Spirit^s breath 
To suffer and to do. 

For this thy name we bless. 
And humbly beg that we 
May follow them in holiness. 
And live and die in thee. 
(Tune, "Mornington.") Amen, 

ADDRESS OF PRESENTATION, 
Charles Francis Adams, LL.D. 

UNVEILING OF THE MEMORIAL. 

RESPONSE FOR THE CHURCH, 
Reverend Charles Edwards Park. 

SENTENCE The Choir. 

"The Lord, our God, be with us as he was with our 
fathers; let him not leave us, nor forsake us, that he 
may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his 
ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, 
and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers." 

BENEDICTION, 
Dr. Hale. 

ORGAN POSTLUDE, 

" Glory and honor," from Cantata " Ich hatte viel Bekiimmerniss," 

Bach. 



IV. 

JOHN COTTON 

AN AI>I>B£SS BY 

PAUIi REVERE FROTHINGHAM 



In 1630, in the spring of that important 
year, a little group of people was gathered 
together on the deck of a vessel, which lay 
at anchor in Southampton Water. A man 
in clerical dress is preaching to them, and 
men and women listen to his telling words 
in rapt attention. The preacher has taken 
his text from 2 Samuel 7 : 10 : ^^ Moreover I 
will appoint a place for my people Israel, 
and I will plant them, that they may dwell 
in a place of their own, and move no more.'^ 

They are well-to-do, these men and 
women, many of them people of promi- 
nence and some distinction, and they are 
evidently emigrants, just setting forth to 
take possession of some distant land. A 
stranger might have gathered this from the 
speaker's words. For, after dwelling on 
the more scholastic meanings of his text, the 
preacher gave it application to the things 



COTTON MEMORIAL 17 

at hand. ^^Have special care/' he said, as 
he drew his sermon to a close, — '^have 
special care that you ever have the ordi- 
nances planted amongst you, or else never 
look for security. As soon as God's ordi- 
nances cease, 3^our security ceaseth likewise; 
but if God plant his ordinances among you, 
fear not, he will maintain them." And 
then he closed his exhortation with these 
impressive words: '^Neglect not walls, and 
bulwarks, and fortifications for your own 
defence; but ever let the name of the Lord 
be your strong tower, and the word of his 
promise the rock of 3^our refuge. His word 
that made heaven and earth will not fail, 
till heaven and earth be no more." 

The preacher was John Cotton, one of the 
most learned and famous clergymen in Eng- 
land at that day, and the men and women 
were the people of Winthrop's company 
who were setting out for Massachusetts 
Bay to becom.e the founders of this town of 
Boston and of this historic church. Cotton 
at that time was vicar of St. Botolph's 
Church in Boston, Lincolnshire, where for 
eighteen 3^ears he had been settled. He had 
made the journey, however, to Southamp- 
ton with several of his friends who were 
am^ong the emigrants, and there, as lately 
has been learned, he preached the sermon 
which was later published under the title of 
'^ God's Promise to his Plantation." He 
was the John Robinson of the Boston Pil- 



18 COTTON MEMORIAL 

grims, and his words deserve a place beside 
the well-remembered words that were spoken 
at Delftshaven. 

Three years now passed, and behold a 
very different scene presents itself, again 
upon a vessel near Southampton, — a scene 
in which the preacher is once more the cen- 
tral figure. He is now a fugitive from per- 
secution, having escaped with difficulty the 
searchers whom Archbishop Laud has laid 
upon his track. The ports of England are 
all watched with care that the "pestilential 
Puritan ^^ may be waylaid. Under cover 
of the night, however, a ship, which was 
diligently searched when she put in at the 
Isle of Wight, is "lying to'' beneath the 
high white cliffs which gird and grace 
the lovely and romantic coast of southern 
England. A boat is rowed off from the 
shore, and the half-concealed figure of a 
man is helped on board the vessel, which 
quickly bears away and shapes her course 
across the waters of the wide Atlantic. 
John Cotton has escaped from his native 
land to become that "great Cotton,'' that 
"Apostle of his age" whom his descendants 
of the seventh and eighth generations have 
honored by this monument which to-day 
we come to dedicate. 

John Cotton was perhaps the greatest, 
probably the most distinguished and surely 
the most influential of all the early Puri- 
tan divines who stamped their life and 



COTTON MEMORIAL 19 

thought upon the destinies of this new 
world. Professor Tyler, in his history of 
American literature, has called him ^Hhe 
unmitered Pope of a pope-hating Common- 
wealth/^ and says that ^'he wielded with 
strong and brilliant mastership the fierce 
Theocracy of New England. Laymen and 
clergymen alike recognized his supremacy 
and rejoiced in it.'^ He was the friend of 
Sir Harry Vane, and the counsellor of 
Cromwell. In the stirring days of the 
Parliament his personality was so command- 
ing that Cromwell and others urged him 
to return to England, and it even was sug- 
gested that a special ship be sent to bear 
him back to his native land. " John Cotton," 
wrote the grim Carlyle in his own dramatic 
and effective way, '^his mark very curiously 
stamped on the face of this planet, very 
likely to continue for some time.'^ 

Of a man so honored in his generation, 
and whose influence still lingers in the laws, 
as well as in the liberties of this old Common- 
wealth, we may well take serious thought 
once more. 

It is hardly necessary to say much in 
regard to the outward life of this conspicuous 
Puritan. John Cotton was born in Derby- 
shire, England, on the fourth day of Decem- 
ber, 1585. His parents, so one of his 
earliest biographers informs us, were "of 
good reputation; their condition, as to the 
things of this life, competent; neither unable 



20 COTTON MEMORIAL 

to defray the expenses of his education in 
literature, nor so abounding as to be a temp- 
tation, on the other hand, unto the neglect 
thereof/' At an early age he was sent 
to Cambridge University, — " that nursing 
mother of so many Puritan divines''; and 
he spent there fifteen studious and profitable 
years. Chosen Fellow of Emmanuel College 
after taking his Bachelor degree, he passed 
by quick promotion through several impor- 
tant offices, becoming in the first place head 
lecturer of the famous college, then Dean 
and Catechist, while also acting as a tutor. 
In becoming Fellow he had 'Haken orders" 
in the Established Church, as was then the 
custom and the regulation both at Cam- 
bridge and at Oxford, and he soon gave 
evidence of marked proficiency in the two 
great lines wherein the deep foundations of 
his fame were laid. I mean in scholarship 
and oratory. Cotton was a man of extraor- 
dinary learning, but he likewise was a 
preacher of great rhetorical gifts, and power 
of persuasive and dramatic speech. It is 
well to understand this at the outset, and to 
get this latter quality in particular dis- 
tinctly in our minds. Except for his gifts 
as a preacher, his capacity for holding 
people, and even for entrancing them in his 
sermons, he never would have wielded half 
the influence of which he came to be pos- 
sessed. His learning gave him authority, 
and made men look to him with admiration 



COTTON MEMORIAL 21 

and respect; but it was in his case, as it has 
been in the Christian church since the great- 
est of all preachers spoke the Sermon on the 
Mount, — the men who have shaped the 
world's theology, and given impulse and 
direction to social and religious reformations, 
have been less the thinkers delving amid 
their books than the exhorters who have 
gone among the people. The pallid cheeks 
of the patient scholar are not so much the 
symbol and the sign of broadening and 
advancing rehgious thought as the glowing 
lips of the eager prophet which have felt the 
touch of the living fire which was taken 
from the altar. But here was a man who 
added to his great attainments in the first 
direction an unusual power in the second. 

The testimony to his learning is both 
ample and emphatic. ^^He was proficient 
in the logic and philosophy then taught in 
the schools; was a critical master of Greek; 
and could converse fluently either in Latin 
or in Hebrew.'' His power of application 
must have been remarkable, and it con- 
tinued with him apparently to the end. 
"A sand-glass," we are told, "which would 
run four hours stood near him as he studied, 
and, being turned over three times, meas- 
ured his day's work. This, he called, ^a 
scholar's day.' " He was careful and thorough 
in preparation for his Sunday work. His 
sermons were always finished, it appears, 
by two o'clock on Saturday afternoons; in 



22 COTTON MEMORIAL 

allusion to which, he once said in rebuking 
the careless ways of others, ^^God will 
curse that man's labors who lumbers up and 
down in the world all the week, and then 
upon Saturday in the afternoon goes to his 
study.'' 

With careful habits such as these it was 
not unnatural that his reputation for learn- 
ing was great in his own day, and has sur- 
vived distinctty ever since. He was spoken 
of as " Si walking encyclopedia or library," 
and long years after his death. Dr. Chauncy, 
a successor in this First Church pulpit, took 
occasion once to sa}" of him that "the great 
Cotton had more learning and understand- 
ing than all that were descended from him," 
— a remark, however, let me add in this 
presence, which was made before the day 
of Brooks, of Adams and of Everett. 

With a reputation, then, for scholarship 
and eloquence already well estabhshed, and 
with marked puritanical leanings, John 
Cotton passed in 1612 from his post in 
Emmanuel College to the work of the active 
ministry in old Boston, Lincolnshire. He 
became the vicar of St. Botolph's church; 
then, as now, I believe, the largest parish 
church in England, and a building cathedral- 
like in appearance and proportions. 

The English Boston of to-day is an unat- 
tractive and comparatively uninteresting 
Httle town, somewhat dirty and markedly 
decadent, and set down in the flattest and 



COTTON MEMORIAL 23 

least inviting part of England. Between 
the narrow streets and past the dingy houses 
ebbs and flows a tidal river, which day by day 
unblushingly lays bare its muddy and un- 
sightly sides. But above it, dominating not 
alone the river and the town, but much of 
the surrounding country, mounts the lordly 
lantern-tower of the noble church. The 
church is the center of the little city; and the 
sole attraction almost that it has to offer to 
the ordinary tourist. 

And thus it was in still another sense, 
three centuries ago. For Cotton's ministry 
was one of power and effectiveness. All 
classes of the people yielded to his sway. 
He was busily employed with voice and pen, 
in public and in private ministrations. The 
number of the services in the church had to 
be increased to meet the needs and wishes 
of the people, and his hearers flocked back 
from the church to gather round him in his 
home. He seems to have had a special 
attraction for students, some of whom came 
across from Holland and Germany to study 
with him. In short he soon had made him- 
self one of the very foremost preachers and 
divines in England. He was only twenty- 
eight when his ministry began there, and it 
lasted for a score of fruitful, but not entirely 
peaceful years. 

The years, I say, were not entirely peaceful. 
From the very outset his Puritan tendencies 
and sympathies were a cause of suspicion 



24 COTTON MEMORIAL 

and of opposition. Accusations were brought 
against him on the ground that he refrained 
from certain rites and omitted the perfor- 
mance of certain ecclesiastical ceremonies. 
At one time he was forbidden the pulpit 
while his case was being considered. But 
his friends were powerful, and saved him 
for a time from further discipline and inter- 
ference. As one of his earlier biographers 
quaintly puts it, ^'he found himself healed 
of his ecclesiastical bronchitis, and restored 
to the use of his voice in the pulpit.'^ 

But the flame of opposition had been 
merely checked, and not extinguished. It 
soon blazed up again in earnest. And now 
the influence of neither earls nor bishops was 
enough to save him; for grim Archbishop 
Laud had come to power, and, as Primate 
of the Church, was bent on rooting out the 
Puritan heresy. Cotton was a shining mark, 
and far too influential to be longer left at 
large. Charges were preferred against him. 
Had they been indictments of a ^^ moral 
nature,'^ relating to ^^ lapses in his personal 
life or character," his friends declared they 
might perhaps have saved him. As it was 
they felt their utter inability to protect him 
from imprisonment and probable torture, 
if not death. He had been too lax in his 
conformity to churchly ways. Laud had 
been heard to say on more than one occa- 
sion, — "Oh, that I might meet with 
Mr. Cotton!" Flight was therefore instantly 



COTTON MEMORIAL 25 

decided on. He thought for a time of taking 
refuge in Holland. But letters just then 
opportunely came from Governor Winthrop 
and the infant church in this other Boston, 
and he resolved to cross the ocean, and to 
carve for himself a new career in the town 
which, partly in his honor, had received its 
name. Thus England lost one of her great- 
est scholars, and most famous preachers and 
reformers; and England's loss was the mighty 
gain of the struggling colony across the sea. 

Cotton carried with him on the ship a 
number of his faithful friends and fond 
parishioners, and he had as fellow-passengers 
the Rev. Samuel Stone and the Rev. Thomas 
Hooker. The arrival of these three distin- 
guished men together in our harbor gave 
rise to a humorous saying among the colo- 
nists, which shows that our Puritan ancestors 
were not entirely devoid of pleasantry. It 
was declared that the colony was now sup- 
plied with three of the chief essentials of 
life. They had Cotton for clothing, and 
Stone for building, and Hooker for fishing. 

John Cotton was in his forty-ninth year 
when he landed on these shores, and we 
hardly can exaggerate the joy and satisfac- 
tion that his coming brought the colonists. 
He was a mighty acquisition; a trump-card 
in their feeble hand; a tower of enormous 
strength. They had longed for him from 
the first, and now they felt equipped to 
fight successfully the arduous battle they 



26 COTTON MEMORIAL 

had well begun. It was decided at once 
"that this great light must be set in their 
chief candlestick/' and a few weeks after his 
arrival, — two hundred and seventy-four 
years ago this day, — he was ordained 
teacher of this First Church, of which John 
Wilson was the pastor. 

Thus began his wonderful career in this 
cis-Atlantic Boston; which, lacking but one 
year and a little more, was to be as long as 
his difficult and dramatic ministry in the 
Boston of old England. But his lot was 
destined not to be an easy one. New diffi- 
culties rose up in his path, and perplexing 
questions soon called aloud for settlement, 
of which he often wished, no doubt, to be 
well rid. In outward ways alone, of course, 
the change was great, and must have cost 
him many a pang. There, in old England, 
had been comfort, here was hardship; there 
was plenty, here privation; there was beauty, 
here a rugged, untamed wilderness. Instead 
of the stately church in which he long had 
labored, he found himself in what could have 
hardly been much better than a settler's 
cabin, — the walls of which were mostly 
clay, and the roof of roughest thatch. But 
conscience, and the sense of rectitude, can 
glorify the humblest dwelling upon earth, 
as well as make oppressive and unbearable 
the fairest and most beautiful surroundings; 
and conscience had alone conducted him to 
this new land of labor and self-sacrifice. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 27 

Of Cotton's influence upon New England 
it would be difficult to say too much, and 
the extent of the power that he wielded can- 
not easily be over-emphasized. "Whatever 
John Cotton delivered in the pulpit/' wrote 
a contemporary historian, "was soon put 
into an order of the court, or set up as a 
practice in the church." It was Roger 
Williams's somewhat sardonic comment that 
"people in Massachusetts could hardly be- 
lieve that God would suffer Mr. Cotton to 
err." That it was a stern and almost tyran- 
nical influence which he exerted goes with- 
out our saying it; for those early Puritans 
were not conspicuous for gentleness, and 
Cotton was a Puritan in all the tissues of his 
mind and every fiber of his conscience. It 
was due to him, much more than to any 
other single individual, that James Russell 
Lowell, two centuries later, could describe 
New England as "all meeting-house when 
I was growing up." For Cotton, as the 
inscription on our monument has well set 
forth, was the "Patriarch of the Massachu- 
setts Theocracy." That Theocracy, how- 
ever, did speedy outrage to the principles 
of civic liberty, and opened wide the door for 
intolerance and persecution. It was utterly 
impossible in practice, and it gave deliberate 
denial to the fundamental Protestant prin- 
ciple of the right of private judgment. 

It is important to remember, none the less, 
that the law by which the Theocracy came 



28 COTTON MEMORIAL 

to be established was none of Cotton's laying 
down. Two years before he reached these 
shores, the General Court had passed this 
famous resolution: '^It is ordered that 
henceforth no man shall be admitted to the 
freedom of this Commonwealth but such as 
are members of the churches within the 
limits of this jurisdiction." In other words, 
there were to be no voters except church 
members, and church members were received 
only upon approval of the clergy. This 
made the ministers supreme, and gave them 
power over matters of civic moment. Church 
and State were one; and the one was to be 
the Church. ^^Such," says a writer, '^was 
the compact, homogeneous and militant 
organization now preparing to resist the 
newest thought of the age. The Puritans 
had not come out into the American wilder- 
ness to offer their new homes as shelter to 
all the unclean birds of Europe. They had 
not come with a vision of a land where each 
man might do and think as he pleased. 
They had come to incarnate in institutions 
certain definite, rigid convictions, and to 
prevent any opposing institutions from find- 
ing a foothold beside them. They had 
come to escape a tyranny which they had 
found hateful, and to establish a tyranny 
which they beheved beneficent and essen- 
tial." And it was not long before the 
persecuted came in turn to persecute, and 
those who had been driven out of England 



COTTON MEMORIAL 29 

began to banish people from New England, 
because of their opinions. 

The part which Cotton played in these 
distressing and lamentable matters has been 
the subject of most careful study and of 
much discussion. He was accused at the 
time of ^^ acting with duphcity/^ and his 
popularity and power suffered for a season 
something of a slight eclipse. A present- 
day historian, who is, no doubt, the most 
distinguished of Cotton's li^dng descendants, 
and to whom, more than to am^ one else, we 
owe this beautiful memorial, — I refer, of 
course, to Mr. Adams, — has characterized 
Cotton as the ^^Inquisitor-in-Chief '' of the 
early colony, adding that he searched out 
every form of heresy, and exercised a rigid 
discipline over men's opinions. The same 
writer speaks, also, of " an ignominious page 
in an otherwise worthy life."^' 

And yet, to Cotton's lasting credit and 
renown, it should never be forgotten that 
he began at least by urging leniency, and 
standing out for toleration. In the face of 
all his clerical brethren he deprecated meas- 
ures of harshness and made as light as 
possible of growing differences of opinion. 
Even before his arrival in the Bay, the case 
of Roger Williams had begun to disturb the 

* " Three Episodes of Massachusetts Historj^" vol. ii, p. 534, 
John Norton's " Funeral Discourse on John Cotton/' pp. 35-37; 
see, also, C. F. Adams's " Massachusetts, its History and its 
Historians," pp. 22, 27-31; '' Proceedings of Massachusetts His- 
torical Society," 2d series, vol. viii, pp. 374-382, 408-412. 



30 COTTON MEMORIAL 

peace of the little community; and, before he 
was comfortably settled and at home, the 
controversy took on ugly form and threat- 
ening shape. Cotton and Williams had 
been friends in England, and Cotton was 
not faithless to the sacred tie. He did not 
believe, probably, even at that time, in 
Roger Williams's right and just contention 
that "civil magistrates have no jurisdiction 
over people's religious opinions, so long as 
the public peace is not disturbed." He did 
not believe, I say, in this entirely sound and 
reasonable principle; and yet when Williams 
was tried and found guilty of "dangerous 
opinions," and ordered to be banished. Cotton 
was the only one among all the ministers of 
the Bay who did not vote in favor of the 
harsh decree. Later on he wrote to Williams 
that the decree was passed "without his 
counsel or consent," — though he added, 
somewhat curiously, that he thought it 
"righteous in the eyes of God." 

Much the same, too, was his attitude and 
bearing in the midst of the greater and more 
serious controversy which raged around the 
teachings and the person of Mrs. Hutchinson. 
We cannot enter here into all the doctrinal 
thickets and the metaphysical mazes of that 
strange and pathetic conflict. Many of the 
people even who took part in it lost their 
way in a hopeless tangle of unreal words 
and phrases and distinctions, and hardly 
knew what it was all about. The only point 



COTTON MEMORIAL 31 

of importance is this, — that Cotton tried to 
stem the ministerial onrush of persecution 
and abuse. He poured the oil of his mag- 
netic eloquence upon the troubled waters. 
He began by making light of the matter, and 
by acting as though it were not worth men^s 
serious attention. "Tell our trans-Atlantic 
friends/' he said to a ship's company about 
to depart for England, "that all our strife 
is about magnifying the grace of God: some 
seek to exalt the grace of God towards us; 
and some the grace of God within us." 

When the battle waxed more fierce, he 
faced again the united front of his clerical 
brethren, practically all of whom were bitter 
in their wish to punish the unfortunate 
woman. Only at the last, when he had 
spoken on her side, and urged a tolerant 
treatment, did he let himself be talked 
around and fall in with the harsher and 
more narrow notions of his brother clergy. 

In ways like these it may be claimed that 
Cotton showed a lack of vigorous will power, 
and displayed his incapacity to stand by his 
convictions. It might appear that he did 
not have that "rockie strength" for which 
the founder of the Providence Plantation 
was so famous. 

But that, I think, is not the explanation 
of the somewhat puzzling facts. It was all, 
as so often happens in this world, a matter 
of where the emphasis is placed. Cotton 
believed, perhaps, in the policy of exclusion; 



32 COTTON MEMORIAL 

but, when it came to practice, his kind heart 
did not hke it. The fact of the matter is 
that the emphasis which Roger WiUiams 
laid on hberty was laid by Cotton upon law 
and order. He saw the need of a firm and 
stable government. The least desirable colo- 
nists were those who acted as disturbers of 
the peace. He shared the delusion, like- 
wise, — which was a noble, though mistaken 
dream, — that a compact company of like 
behevers could be gathered and perpetuated, 
who should reahze and work out for them- 
selves the kingdom of heaven upon earth. 

Puritanism, moreover, as we cannot too 
rigidly remember, was first of all ^^ an ethical 
power. It desired the moral betterment of the 
people." In the eyes of its divines, purity of 
life was more important than liberty of action, 
and strict adherence to the moral law of more 
account than individual freedom of belief. 
It believed, too, in an active and authorita- 
tive church, which exercised dominion over 
men; not indeed, as happened in the Church 
of England at that time, in regard to rites 
and churchly ceremonies, but so far as up- 
right living, noble doing, and right beheving 
were concerned. This was part and parcel 
of its Calvinism; and Cotton was an ardent 
and devout disciple of the iron autocrat of 
old Geneva. It was he who made the re- 
mark, which often has been quoted, sa^dng 
that he ^' loved to sweeten his mouth mth 
a morsel of Calvin before he went to sleep." 



COTTON MEMORIAL 33 

"I have read the Fathers/^ he used to say, 
"and the Schoolmen, and Calvin, too; but 
I find that he that has Calvin has them all/^ 
Calvin^s Institutes, however, were hardly less 
distinctive of him than his well-known doc- 
trines, and he labored quite as ardently for 
purer civic conditions as he strove for ways 
or forms of thinking and belief. "Calvin- 
ism,^' wrote that graphic historian, Anthony 
Froude, who excelled so far in historic 
insight the men who criticized him with 
such freedom, — " Calvinism was the spirit 
which rises in revolt against untruth, the 
spirit which has appeared and reappeared, 
and in due time will appear again, unless 
God be a delusion and man be as the beasts 
that perish. For it is but the inflashing 
upon the conscience with overwhelming 
force of the nature and origin of the laws 
which exist, whether we acknowledge them, 
or whether we deny them, and will have 
their way to our weal or woe, according to 
the attitude in which we please to place 
ourselves toward them, . . . not to be 
altered by us, but to be discerned and obeyed 
by us at our everlasting peril.''* "It is 
astonishing to find," he wrote once to a 
friend, "how little in ordinary life the Cal- 
vinists talked or wrote about doctrine. The 
doctrine was never more than the dress. 
The living creature was wholly moral and 
political." 

* " Short Studies," 2d series, p. 52. 



34 COTTON MEMORIAL 

And thus it was with Cotton. The ends 
he sought were moral and pohtical, ethical 
and social. The business of the church, 
he held, was to inspire and direct the state. 
The magistrate was an agent of the Lord. 
Religion had to do with civic matters. A 
Theocracy seemed to him a higher form 
of government than Democracy. For "ii 
the people are governors,'^ he asked, ^^who, 
then, are the governed?^' "When a com- 
monwealth," he wrote, "hath liberty to 
mold its own frame, I conceive the Scrip- 
tures hath given full directions for the right 
ordering of the same. It is better that the 
commonwealth be fashioned to the setting 
forth of God's house, which is his church, 
than to accommodate the church's frame 
to the civil state." And yet this man, in 
spite of theocratic tendencies and prac- 
tices, was the mighty champion and the 
stern defender of what is known as the 
"New England Way" in matters of church 
government. That way was the way of 
" Congregationalism," — a term, indeed, which 
Cotton, we are told, originated. The congre- 
gational way, however, is the way of pure 
Democracy within the church. It meant 
entire liberty and full equality before the Lord. 
But what was right and best in church could 
not be long denied the state. And so "the 
New England Way" inevitably broadened out 
until it led at last and opened into the civic 
and religious freedom which we now enjoy. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 35 

The influence of Cotton in the colony 
deepened with the years, and grew continu- 
ally greater. He held an undisputed sway. 
After the first disturbances with Roger 
Williams and with Mrs. Hutchinson were 
over, and he yielded to the clerical party, 
there was no abatement in his popularity 
and power. He was followed, obeyed, ad- 
mired, worshiped almost. His scholarship 
and general intellectual attainments set him 
in a place apart. There were none who 
could approach him in these high respects. 

To these mental gifts, moreover, there 
was added a singularly sweet and loving 
disposition. Dignity and gentleness were 
mingled in him. Righteousness and peace 
embraced and kissed each other in his char- 
acter. He had in full degree that grave 
humility for which the Puritan was famous. 
Once when a discontented parishioner re- 
buked him, saying that his ministry was 
falling off, and was either ^^dark or flat,'' 
he gently answered, "both, brother/' and 
said no more in his defence. 

His generosity, it seems, was likewise 
marked, and he had a noble scorn of worldly 
goods. He insisted that his salary should 
only come from the free-will offerings of 
his people, and out of his limited resources 
he gave with handsome hand to others. 
" In effecting his settlement in New England 
he had spent a considerable sum of money 
for those days." But when the people 



36 COTTON MEMORIAL 

wished to reimburse him, he said that ^4t 
was not necessary in the circumstances.'' 
He kept open house and practiced, it was 
said, the hospitahty of a bishop, paying 
particular attention to the needy and dis- 
tressed. On one occasion when news was 
brought of the suffering condition of the 
people in a little church in Bermuda, and 
a contribution from Boston people was 
solicited, it was noted that no one exceeded, 
and only one person equaled, the generous 
amount that was given by the teacher of the 
church. 

It is probable, however, as I hinted at the 
outset, that he owed his extraordinary in- 
fluence more to his wonderful pulpit elo- 
quence than to any other quality. For John 
Cotton first and foremost was a preacher. 
He bewitched and swayed the undergraduates 
at old Cambridge when himself but a youth 
of hardly more than twenty-five. He filled 
the great church of St. Botolph to the doors 
with a hungry multitude who listened to his 
passionate and pleading words; and, when 
he came to these forbidding shores, the joyful 
people clustered round him, and not only 
gave attention to his words, but put his 
precepts into practice. 

Longfellow, in his "New England Trage- 
dies," using words that an early writer had 
employed, describes him as a 

" Chrysostom in his pulpit ; Augustine 
In disputation; Timothy in his house! " 



COTTON MEMORIAL 37 

Adding : 

"The lantern of St. Botolph's ceased to burn 
When from the portals of that church he came 
To be a burning and a shining light 
Here in the wilderness." 

The tributes, or the testimonies, on this 
point are numerous, and too definite and 
clear to leave us any room for doubt. He 
belongs in the category x)f the world's great 
preachers. A contemporary writer, speak- 
ing of him, declared that he ^^had such an 
insinuating and melting way in his preach- 
ing that he would usually carry his very 
adversary captive after the triumphant 
chariot of his rhetoric. '^ Another writer of 
the time, in trying to express his feelings, 
found the resources of prose entirely inade- 
quate for his purpose, and burst forth thus 
into somewhat doubtful verse : 

'^A man of might at heavenly eloquence 
To fix the ear and charm the conscience; 
As if Apollos were revived in him, 
Or he had learned of a Seraphim. 



Rocks rent before him; blind received their sight; 
Souls leveled to the dunghill stood upright.'' 

It has been remarked more than once 
by careful students of the subject that 
Cotton's printed sermons give no evidence 
of this extraordinary power. They are dry, 
scholastic and uninteresting, — lighted up 



38 COTTON MEMORIAL 

by no dramatic illustrations, and brightened 
by no pithy sayings. They are the dullest, 
heaviest and most unexhilirating reading 
at the present time that one can well 
imagine. 

Yet in all of this there is nothing fairly to 
be called exceptional, unless it be in matter 
of degree. The same has been the case with 
other mighty preachers whose power with 
their hearers has been more marked and 
wonderful than Cotton's. It was thus with 
Whitefield, for example. If you read the 
printed sermons of Whitefield it is hard to 
understand the countless multitudes who 
sat or stood upon the hillsides in all kinds 
of weather when he preached in the open 
air; and who climbed up to the roofs of 
churches, and stood outside the open win- 
dows, and even filled the neighboring 
squares and streets when he spoke within 
some building. The sermons of the famous 
Methodist that were written out, or taken 
down and given to the press, do not disclose 
much more than those of Cotton where the 
secret of the preacher's power lay. The 
simple fact of the matter is that elements 
exist in all such cases which never can be set 
in type, nor struck off in the printer's ink, — 
the tones of a voice, the flash of a radiant 
eye, the expression of a rapt and pious coun- 
tenance, the magnetic personality, which 
oftentimes exert hypnotic influence. Such 
elements as these, no doubt, were prominent 



COTTON MEMORIAL 39 

and well developed in the case of Cotton, 
while the sermons that he put into print 
were probably his most scholastic and 
didactic. 

As regards "the manner of his preach- 
ing/' we are told that "he was plain and 
perspicuous. He consistently forebore to 
make any display of his vast learning in the 
pulpit. He addressed himself to the com- 
mon people. His chief anxiety was to be 
understood. He would often say, — though 
apt to handle the deepest subject: ^I 
desire to speak so as to be understood by the 
meanest capacity.' '' 

His voice, it seems from what has been 
reported of him, was clear and distinct, not 
loud; and he could make himself heard with 
ease in the largest auditorium. There was 
such life and vigor and alertness in his 
preaching that his colleague, Mr. Wilson, 
once said: "One almost thinks that he hears 
the very prophet speak, upon whose words 
he is dwelling." 

I should like to speak, if there were time, 
of the public effect of his pulpit words; for 
few men probably have had their Sunday 
messages bear greater fruit in week-day 
righteousness and civic institutions and 
decrees. 

But I must not detain you longer. His 
popularity and power, after the first, never 
suffered any abatement or decline. He died 
as he had lived, — faithful, fervent, public- 



40 COTTON MEMORIAL 

spirited, devout and conscientious, — a 
Puritan who suffered more than many for his 
principles, a leader who was privileged to 
guide and stimulate the elect. Carlyle was 
right. His mark is very definitely, if not 
curiously, stamped on the face of this planet, 
very likely to continue for some time. Two 
centuries and more have not effaced it, but 
have rather brought its living and ennobling 
lines into greater clearness; and it may be 
that when two centuries and three quarters 
more have fled, the people still will tell 
about his wisdom, and the congregation 
will show forth his praise. 

His brother ministers, so we are told, 
lifted him aloft in death, and bore his body 
on their shoulders to the tomb. So we 
to-day, after all this lapse of years, and 
amid these very different surroundings, 
would lift him up once more in admiration 
and respect, that we may bear him forward, 
not into the darkness and the silence of the 
tomb, but into that bright and lasting 
radiance of earthly immortality which be- 
longs to the greatest and the purest sons 
of men. 

His descendants in the seventh and eighth 
generations now offer to the church of which 
he was the first and greatest teacher, this 
fitting and beautiful memorial, praying that 
in their day they may be as faithful to the 
mighty and eternal trusts of life as their 
famous ancestor revealed himself in his. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 41 

As his immediate successor in this pulpit 
wrote at the close of his little memoir, from 
which I have quoted more than once already : 
"It is not material in what age we live; 
but that we live as we ought in that age 
wherein we live. ^ Moriar ego morte justorum, 
et sit finis mens sicut illius.^ ^' 



ADDRESS OF PRESENTATION 

BY 

CHARIiES FRANCIS ADAMS 



The present gathering is distinctly one of 
Cotton descendants. They are here, either 
in person or represented, even to the tenth 
generation.* Of the common ancestor another 
has already to-day spoken, and spoken in a 
double capacity; for, himself a descendant 
of John Cotton, he is also descended from a 
successor t of Cotton in the ministry of this 
church, though two full centuries intervened 
between their respective occupancies of that 
pulpit. The function of Mr. Thayer and my- 
self on this occasion is merely to voice a 
numerous progeny, scattered widely over the 
common country from Massachusetts Bay to 
the Golden Gate, and beyond to the islands 

* There was present on this occasion at least one of the sixth 
generation of descendants, Mrs. Frank B. Davis of Plymouth. 
Among the names of contributors to the memorial are those of 
Richard Middlecott Saltonstall and Henry Lee Higginson, Jr., 
descendants respectively of Cotton's prominent contemporaries, 
Sir Richard Saltonstall and Francis Higginson, the last named 
having been the first teacher of the sister Salem church; and 
both also descended from John Cotton in the tenth generation. 

t Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, D.D., Pastor, 1815- 
1850. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 43 

of the Pacific,* in the transfer to the Society, 
over which John Cotton for nearly twenty 
years ministered as teacher, of the memorial 
commemorative of him, his life and his 
services. 

In thus making a merely formal transfer, 
it is not for us again to go over the ground 
Mr. Frothingham has traversed. It is, how- 
ever, perhaps permissible to contribute a few 
brief words as to the spirit which has now 
inspired this tardy action of the descendants, 
and the fitness of placing the memorial here, 
and, so to speak, publicly consecrating it, on 
this particular day. 

John Cotton, it must be freely admitted, 
is now little more than a name and a local 
tradition. Though, more than half a century 
since, a tablet to his memory was placed in 
St. Botolph's Church in the Lincolnshire 
Boston, his monument has not been erected 
in New England; no inscription bears its 
witness to him; no headstone even marks 
the spot where his ashes rest. His name, 
inscribed with those of three other eminent 
divines of later days, on a slab of slate in 
the King's Chapel burying-ground, alone 
indicates the vault in which his body was 
placed, borne to it on Wednesday, the twenty- 
ninth day of December, 1652, upon the 
shoulders of his brethren. No collection has 

* Peter C. Jones of Honolulu was one of the most earnest 
advocates of the memorial, as well as one of the more liberal 
contributors thereto, William T. Brigham of Honolulu was 
also a contributor. 



44 COTTON MEMORIAL 

been made of his voluminous writings; his 
discourses, famous in their day, are known 
only to scholars and the curious. 

Why has this so chanced? The reason is 
obvious. The two hundred and seventy-four 
years which have passed since John Cotton 
first set foot in Boston cover much the more 
considerable part of what is termed modern, 
as contra-distinguished from medieval or 
ancient history; and hence, though during 
the latter portion of his days he Hved in 
New England, and here did his life's work, 
we cannot but feel that our ancestor is of 
another world than ours. Dating that so- 
called modern history from the time of 
Columbus and Luther, — the discovery of 
America and the Reformation, those two 
epochal events separated from each other 
by twenty-five years only, — the occasion we 
to-day celebrate falls well within the first 
quarter of the time which has since elapsed. 
That memorable Diet of Worms which listened 
to the famous ^^ There I take my stand'' of 
Luther was by a score of years less remote 
from John Cotton's generation than is the 
Declaration of the Philadelphia Congress of 
1776 from ours. Indeed, the mere mention 
of an event as having occurred in 1633 carries 
the imagination back to another, a remote 
and yet a curiously familiar existence. When 
John Cotton received his call from this church 
William Shakespeare had been dead but one 
year longer than has Alfred Tennyson now; 



COTTON MEMORIAL 45 

Gustavus Adolphus had fallen at Lutzen less 
than eleven months before. Of the classic 
writings of one of John Cotton^s great con- 
temporaries, a younger man than he, the ink 
of the Allegro and the Penseroso was hardly- 
dry, for Milton was but twenty-five; Crom- 
well, a rustic and unknown Huntingtonshire 
fox-hunting yeoman and squire, was thirty- 
four. On the continent, the great Galileo, 
not yet three score and ten, had still nine 
years of life before him. And Boston! — 
a germinal spot rather than a town, — the 
crude settlement called Boston numbered 
a few hundred people, their scattered dwel- 
lings clustering between the two less elevated 
of its hills, close to their water front. The 
single public building of the straggling ham- 
let, — the common meeting-house, with its 
walls of rude stone and rough-hewn logs, 
cemented with clay under its roof of thatch, 

— stood fronting the little market-place; 
while the home of Governor Winthrop was 
but a block away, and what we now know 
as the King's Chapel burying-ground lay in 
the outskirts of the settlement. 

And why was the present day selected 
for the purpose which brings us here? Listen 
to this diary record of what took place in 
that meeting-house of stone and logs and 
thatch, fronting on the market-place, on 
the tenth day of October, two hundred and 
seventy-four years ago. This very church, 

— the First Church in Boston, — gathered 



46 COTTON MEMORIAL 

three years before, was there assembled in 
full numbers, and in a spirit specially de- 
vout. John Winthrop speaks : 

''October 10. A fast was kept at Boston, and 
Mr. Leverett, an ancient, sincere professor, of Mr. 
Cotton's congregation in England, was chosen a ruling 
elder, and Mr. Firmin, a godly man, an apothecary of 
Sudbury in England, was chosen deacon, by imposition 
of hands; and Mr. Cotton was then chosen teacher of 
the congregation of Boston, and ordained by imposi- 
tion of the hands of the presbytery, in this manner: 
First, he was chosen by all the congregation, testifying 
their consent by erection of hands. Then Mr. Wilson, 
the pastor, demanded of him, if he did accept of that 
call. He paused, and then spake to this effect: that 
howsoever he knew himself unworthy and unsufficient 
for that place; yet, having observed all the passages 
of God's providence, (which he reckoned up in par- 
ticular) in calling him to it, he could not but accept 
it. Then the pastor and the two elders laid their 
hands upon his head, and the pastor prayed, and then 
taking off their hands, laid them on again, and, speak- 
ing to him by his name, they did thenceforth design 
him to the said office, in the name of the Holy Ghost, 
and did give him the charge of the congregation, and 
did thereby (as by a sign from God) indue him with 
the gifts fit for his office; and lastly did bless him. 
Then the neighboring ministers, which were present, 
did (at the pastor's motion) give him the right hand 
of fellowship, and the pastor made a stipulation be- 
tween him and the congregation." 

Eleven months ago, when your present 
pastor formally assumed his functions as the 
twentieth minister of this ancient Society, 
the venerable dean* of our present congre- 

* The Rev. Edward E. Hale, D.D. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 47 

gational body made public announcement, 
at the close of the exercises, that Mr. Park 
"having been ordained as a minister of the 
Congregational Church several years since ^' 
was now installed as a minister of the First 
Church. On the wall above yonder recum- 
bent figure you will notice it inscribed that 
"ordained immediately on his arrivaP' as 
teacher, John Cotton "thereafter ministered 
as such." The office of teacher has in our 
church system long since ceased to exist ; and 
with us the title is academic and educational 
only. It was not so always. In the earlier 
time, on the contrary, the teacher was in 
reality associate pastor of the church; an 
ordained clergyman, his more especial func- 
tion was to explain doctrinal points, and 
expound Scripture. John Cotton thus spoke 
to his people ex cathedra. But Cotton, when 
he first set foot in New England, was already 
ordained. For twenty years vicar of St. 
Botolph, as a preacher his English fame had 
gone far. Yet, historically speaking, the 
inscription is correct. Cotton was here or- 
dained as minister; not merely installed as 
teacher. The contemporaneous record I have 
read so specifically states,* using the word 
'^ordained" and describing the imposition of 
hands; moreover, the ceremony was char- 
acteristic of the man and of the times. 
It involved, in Cotton's case, a tenet affect- 

* Winthrop's ** History of New England " (Savage's Ed.) , 
vol. i, p. 136. 



48 COTTON MEMORIAL 

ing another religious rite, that of baptism. 
For it so chanced that Cotton then had an 
infant son, afterwards known as Seaborn, to 
whom his wife had given birth during their 
voyage across the Atlantic ; and this son the 
father had refused to baptize at sea for two 
reasons: "not for want of fresh water, for 
he held, sea water would have served: 
1, because they had no settled congregation 
there; 2, because a minister hath no power 
to give the seals but in his own congrega- 
tion/'* In other words, and the fact is 
singularly suggestive as to the conscien- 
tious exactitude of the Puritan period, John 
Cotton held that the priestly character 
ceased with the severance of the pastoral 
bond, and must be renewed on the acceptance 
of another call. Nor, until so renewed, could 
the individual officiate in performing church 
functions. Hence, the 1633 reordination 
of this tenth day of October. 

Though now, as I in the beginning said, 
become little more than an historic shadow, 
— a ghostlike figure of a remote and but 
dimly remembered past, — the progeny of 
John Cotton feel that he was a potent spiritual 
and civic factor during the formative period 
of what has since become a most prominent 
world-community, and as such a leading 
influence in civilization. The greatest of 
modern naturalists has not hesitated to 

*Winthrop's "History of New England" (Savage's Ed.), 
vol. i, p. 131. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 49 

declare in a passage I have had occasion more 
than once to quote that, looking to the distant 
future, he did not consider it " an exaggerated 
view [to say that] all other series of events 
— as that which resulted in the culture of 
mind in Greece, and that which resulted in 
the Empire of Rome — only appear to have 
purpose and value when viewed in connection 
with, or rather as subsidiary to, the great 
stream of Anglo-Saxon emigration to the 
West.''* Just a century after Cotton was 
ordained as teacher of this First Church in 
Boston, and so of that nascent community 
to which Charles Darwin here made reference, 
Alexander Pope wrote : 

" 'Tis education forms the common mind: 
Just as the twig is bent the tree's incHned." 

The hand of John Cotton bent that twig. 

The claim on behalf of John Cotton this 
day made by us, his descendants, is that to 
Massachusetts, and through Massachusetts to 
New England and America, he was what 
Luther was to Germany, what Calvin was to 
France and the Low Countries, what Knox 
was to Scotland, — a great, far-felt, formative 
influence. The inscription yonder reads that 
it was he who "gave form and inspiration 
to the Ecclesiastical Polity known as ^The 
New England Way.' '^ And what was that 
"New England Way''? It was nothing less 

* Darwin, "The Descent of Man" (Ed. 1874), vol. ii, 
pp. 218-219. 



50 COTTON MEMORIAL 

than the aboUtion of caste and the hierarchy, 
and the introduction of democracy and 
equahty into the church. It was a step, 
and a long step, in advance. The Presbytery 
was then swept aside, as Pope and Bishop 
had been set aside before; and the church 
took its place in the common, unconsecrated 
meeting-house as part of the town-meeting. 
Thence, as night to day, inevitably followed 
widespread toleration and absolute freedom 
of religious thought. That the last was ever 
contemplated by Cotton, his descendants 
could not, nor do they, claim. Influenced 
by his age and his environment, he, like 
Luther and Calvin and Knox, recoiled at the 
thought of what Roger WiUiams contended 
for. The absence of restraint meant in his 
belief license. But, like those others, he 
builded more wisely than he knew; and John 
Cotton was essentially a builder. His was 
a constructive mind. 

Like his great coadjutor, John Winthrop, 
Cotton was also inherently a tolerant man; 
though his lot was cast in an intolerant 
age, nor was he one of those few to whom 
is given the largest measure of freedom from 
the influence of environment. He was not 
in the class of William the Silent; nor was 
Winthrop : few are in that class. But, none 
the less, whatever their shortcomings and 
limitations, John Cotton and John Winthrop 
stand conspicuously forth as the great typical 
exponents of the spiritual and civic polity 



COTTON MEMORIAL 51 

which is identified with the name of New 
England. They stood by its cradle; they 
exemplify its growth. Therefore it is that 
John Cotton^s descendants have deemed it 
eminently fit and in all respects proper that 
his memorial should be placed here within 
that house of worship at whose portal stands 
the effigy of Winthrop. 

True ! — when Cotton was ordained and not 
only for the whole period of that ministry 
during nearly all of which Winthrop sat as a 
devout worshiper in Cotton's congregation, 
but for two full centuries thereafter, the site 
on which this house stands was a watery 
waste; a wind-swept region, the home of 
the sheering gull and the haunt of the water 
fowl, it was remote from the habitations of 
men. But, even more for that reason, is it 
befitting that John Cotton's memorial should 
be here and not elsewhere, — least of all in 
that now busy mart where he in fife minis- 
tered, and which his windows overlooked.* 
In his day the name. First Church in Boston, 
applied not at all to the edifice. It desig- 

* Cotton's dwelling, which was also the home of Sir Harry- 
Vane during his stay in Boston, stood upon the slope of Beacon 
Hill on the west side of the lower entrance to what is now 
Pemberton Square, about on the rear portion of the present site 
of the Suffolk Savings Bank building. It consequently imme- 
diately overlooked what is now Scollay Square, and commanded 
Court Street and State Street. The site of the present Old 
State House building was then the open market-place of the 
town; and the original meeting-house stood on the south side 
of the market-place, on the site of what is now known as 
Brazer's Building. 



52 COTTON MEMORIAL 

nated no piled-up aggregation of lumber or 
masonry, but a congregation of men and 
women. You, constituting what is still this 
town's First Church, were originally gathered 
in that portion of what is now Boston, long 
known as Charlestown; and, since then, dur- 
ing the centuries which have rolled past, you 
have had no less than five houses of worship, 

— but in this, the fifth of those houses, as in 
all the others, you are, as you always were, 
still the First Church in Boston, — the church 
of John Winthrop, of John Wilson and of 
John Cotton. Could it now be asked where 
his memorial should be placed, who can 
doubt how John Cotton's shade would answer? 

— ^^And Ruth said, whither thou goest, I 
will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge : 
thy people shall be my people, and thy God 
my God.'' 

And John Winthrop, — his statue stands 
yonder, under the very eaves of this edifice 
in which the church, to whose covenant his 
signature was the first attached, now wor- 
ships. Of that church he was during life a 
pillar, — as one of its communicants, con- 
stant and devout, John Cotton was his friend, 
his coadjutor, his mentor and his teacher. 
Of them also may it not fitly be said as was 
said of those others of old, — " Saul and 
Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their 
lives, and in their death they were not 
divided"? 

The presence here, then, in bronze and in 






The Winthuop Statue. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 63 

marble, of their effigies, — the one in Ufe 
and the other in death, — goes far to make 
of this edifice the consecrated and innermost 
shrine sought by that ever-increasing throng 
of pilgrims which yearly, from far and near, 
turns to this town of Boston, as the birth- 
place of the New England Town-meeting 
and its Congregational Church. This house 
will be the Holy of Holies in the pilgrim's 
Jerusalem. 



As representatives of the descendants of 
John Cotton and in the name of those con- 
tributing thereto, we, being fully empowered 
to that end, now transfer to you this effigy 
and memorial of our ancestor and your great 
teacher, and, in so doing, place them in the 
possession and custody of the First Church 
in Boston for lasting preservation. 



VI. 
RESPONSE FOR THE CHURCH 

BY 

CHARLES EDWARDS PARK 



The First Church in Boston has authorized 
me, sir, to accept at your hands, and in their 
behalf, the memorial statue of their first 
teacher, Reverend John Cotton, which you 
have unveiled and presented to them. My 
first duty shall be to assure you, and the 
donors whom you represent, of our heart- 
felt gratitude for this remarkable gift. And 
inasmuch as the English language has its 
limitations, one might with reason be tempted 
to forego all effort to tell you just to what 
degree of intensity our gratitude extends, and 
to be content with repeating the response 
ascribed by Shakespeare to Don John, when 
welcomed by Leonato to Messina — "I 
thank you; I am not of many words, but 
I thank you. '^ 

And yet it would seem that the exigencies 
of this present occasion will not permit of 
dismissing the whole matter with such curt, 
though genuine, thanks. Apart from our 
recognition of your great generosity to us, 
apart from our appreciation of the exquisite 



COTTON MEMORIAL 55 

beauty and the artistic value of the marble 
which you have placed in our church build- 
ing, your action in erecting a memorial to 
a man like John Cotton carries to our hearts 
a significance, and imposes upon us an obli- 
gation which, we feel, demand recognition. 

Time was, in the days of ancient Greece, 
when men saw fit to immortalize their 
fellow-beings on account of their physical 
beauty, or on account of their athletic 
prowess. And time was, in the days of 
medieval Europe, when men saw fit to 
immortalize their fellow-beings on account 
of their ambition, however monstrous it 
may have been, or on account of their mili- 
tary conquests, however unjust they may 
have been, or on account of their notoriety, 
however violent and personal it may have 
been. 

But those times are past. Our growing 
conceptions of human excellence have 
evolved for us a far higher and worthier 
criterion of judgment than that of mere 
physical beauty, or selfish notoriety. With 
our puritanical notions of what is most 
worth while in life, we have a way of de- 
manding that the men whom we are to 
immortalize shall be men, not only of courage 
and ability, but first of all men of a holy 
purpose and a God-fearing motive. It is 
only the men of holy purpose and God- 
fearing motive whom we consider worthy 
of such honor. And when we have honored 



56 COTTON MEMORIAL 

them, it is their holy purpose and their 
God-fearing motive that we primarily em- 
phasize. Those quahties in them take pre- 
cedence over all others. 

Therefore, in presenting this church with 
a memorial to John Cotton you have tacitly 
borne witness to his holy purpose and his 
God-fearing motive. And in receiving this 
gift from you, the First Church in Boston 
eagerly and humbly acknowledges the obli- 
gation which you have placed upon it, — 
an obligation to count that holy purpose 
and that God-fearing motive which were 
so richly manifest in its first teacher, the 
foremost aim and aspiration of life; an obli- 
gation to perpetuate his spirit of noble ser- 
vice; an obligation to strive continually 
towards his ideal of true manhood. 

And so, sir, with the assurance that the 
presence of John Cotton's memorial in this 
house of God shall be to us not merely a 
source of sentimental gratification, not 
merely a source of historical interest, not 
merely a source of idle comfort for our 
sense of tradition, but with the assurance 
that it shall be to us a constant reminder 
of our duty as a church of God, and a mute 
though eloquent witness to the grandeur 
of the holy purpose and the God-fearing 
motive in man, — with these assurances, 
we gratefully accept your gift. 




^JfcnS 



The Berkeley Street Chuhch. 



VII. 
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 



Abbott, Mr. Abiel J $10.00 

Adams, Mr. Charles Francis 1,000.00 

Almy, Mrs. Charles 5.00 

Austin, Mrs. James Walker 5.00 

Babcock, Dr. George C 1.00 

Beckley, Mr. Chester C 5.00 

Billings, Mrs. Mary P. C. (deceased) . . 2.50 

Blake, Mrs. Mary Lee 100.00 

Brigham, Mr. William T 10.00 

Brooks, Rev. John Cotton (deceased) . . 5.00 

Brooks, Mr. Peter C 1,000.00 

Brooks, Mr. Shepherd 1,000.00 

Brooks, Mr. William G 1.00 

Bro^n, Mrs. Leander (Graves) .... 5.00 

Bro\NTie, Miss Emily Bramhall .... 1.00 

Browne, Miss Helen Alden 1.00 

Bro\\Tie, Mr. Herbert Wheildon Cotton. . 1.00 

Browne, Mr. Louis L'Ecluse 1.00 

Browne, Mr. Thomas Quincy .... 1.00 

Browne, Mr. Thomas Quincy, Jr. . . . 1.00 

Browne, Mr. Walter Hall 1.00 

Browne, Mr. William Prit chard .... 1.00 

Burton, Mrs. Alice 2.50 

Burton, Mrs. Ward Cotton 5.00 

Cabot, Dr. Arthur T 10.00 

Clark, Mrs. Maria P 2.00 

Codman, Mrs. J. M 50.00 

Coe, Dr. Thomas Upham 50.00 

Coffin, Mrs. Grace Parkman 10.00 

Coolidge, Mrs. Algernon 1.00 

Cordner, Mrs. Caroline P 5.00 



58 COTTON MEMORIAL 

Cotton, Mr. Arthur Baxter $1.00 

Cotton, Mr. Charles E 10.00 

Cotton, Rear-Admiral Charles S., U. S. N., retired 25.00 

Cotton, Mr. Clarence Arthur .... 1.00 

Cotton, Miss Elizabeth J 1.50 

Cotton, Mr. E. S 1.00 

Cotton, Miss Grace 5.00 

Cotton, Mr. Jared C 1.00 

Cotton, Mr. John 2.00 

Cotton, Mr. John A 10.00 

Cotton, Dr. John Storrs 2.00 

Cotton, Dr. John T. (deceased) .... 100.00 

Cotton, Dr. Josiah Dexter (deceased) . . 5.00 

Cotton, Miss Mary E 1.50 

Cotton, Mr. Samuel Storrs 5.00 

Cotton, Mr. T. E. S . . 1.00 

Cotton, Mr. Thomas J 10.00 

Cotton, Miss Willia Dawson 2.00 

Cotton, Mr. William A 1.00 

Cotton, Mr. William E 1.00 

Cotton, Mr. W. W 20.00 

Cummings, Mrs. Charles K 1.00 

Cummings, Mr. Charles K., Jr 1.00 

Cummings, Miss Ethel 1.00 

Cummings, Mr. Francis Hathaway . . . 1.00 

Cunningham, Mrs. Edward 2.00 

Cunningham, Mrs. Ida Cary 5.00 

Cushing, Miss Fannie E 2.00 

Cushing, Mr. Lawrence B 5.00 

Cushing, Miss Margaret W 5.00 

Dale, Mrs. Ellen 5.00 

Davis, Mrs. Susan H 25.00 

Draper, Edward L 5.00 

Draper, Miss Sarah M 1.00 

Emerson, Dr. Edward W 5.00 

Ernst, Mrs. Ellen L 20.00 

Everett, Dr. William 1.00 

Fitzgerald, Mrs. James R 10.00 

Folsom, Mrs. Catherine Abbott .... 1.00 

Forbes, Mrs. Edward W 5.00 



COTTON MEMORIAL 59 

Frothingham, Rev. Paul R $25.00 

Goodell, Mr. George F 1.00 

Graves, Mr. Edward Pike 5.00 

Gray, Miss Ellen 500.00 

Gray, Miss Harriet 10.00 

Gray, m. John C 50.00 

Gray, Miss Mary C. . 10.00 

Gray, Mr. Morris 10.00 

Gray, Mr. Russell 5.00 

Grier, Mr. Carlton A . 1.00 

Guild, Mrs. Annie Frothingham . . . 5.00 

Haskell, Dr. W. A 2.00 

Haskell, Miss Helen Parkhurst .... 2.00 

Haskell, Mr. John Abraham 2.00 

Haskell, Miss Lucy 2.00 

Haskell, Mr. Norman Abraham .... 2.00 

Hay den, Mrs. Ellen F 1.00 

Heath, Miss Dorothea 1.00 

Heath, Mr. Reginald Gary 2.00 

Higginson, Mr. Frank L 500.00 

Higginson, Mr. Henry L., Jr 5.00 

Higginson, Mr. James J 50.00 

Hobart, Mrs. Henry K 1.00 

Hunt, Mrs. Alice Browne 1.00 

Hutchins, Mrs. Elizabeth Browne ... 1.00 

Jackson, Mr. Charles C 5.00 

Jackson, Miss Marion C 1.00 

Jones, I\Iiss Jennie E 1.00 

Jones, Mr. Peter C 500.00 

Kenrick, Mr. John A 1.00 

Kimball, Mrs. Thatcher R 1.00 

Latimer, Mrs. Clark 3.00 

Lee, Mr. Joseph 10.00 

Lowell, Mr. Forrest S 1.00 

Lowell, Mr. Francis C 10.00 

Lowell, Mrs. Georgiana 15.00 

Lowell, Mr. James H 1.00 

Minot, Miss Elizabeth C 5.00 

Minot, Miss Harriet 5.00 

Minot, Miss Mary 5.00 



60 



COTTON MEMORIAL 



Morse, Miss Frances R. . 






$5.00 


Morse, Dr. Henry Lee 






2.00 


Morse, Mr. John T., Jr. . 






25.00 


Morse, Mrs. Samuel T. 






5.00 


Paine, Mr. Alfred White . 






2.00 


Paine, Gen. Charles J. 






100.00 


Paine, Mr. Charles J., Jr. 






LOO 


Paine, Miss Dorothy . 






LOO 


Paine, Miss Ethel L. . . 






2.00 


Paine, Mr. Francis Cabot 






1.00 


Paine, Miss Georgiana 






1.00 


Paine, Rev. George L. 






5.00 


Paine, Mr. George Lyman, Ji 


. . 




2.00 


Paine, Miss Helen Sumner 






1.00 


Paine, Mr. John Bryant . 






1.00 


Paine, Mr. John Bryant, Jr. 






1.00 


Paine, Miss Julia B. . 






1.00 


Paine, Miss Louise Carolyn 






1.00 


Paine, Miss Marianne 






50.00 


Paine, Hon. Robert Treat 






50.00 


Paine, Mr. Robert Treat, Jr. 




1.00 


Paine, Mr. Robert Treat, 3d . . 




1.00 


Paine, Miss Sarah C 




50.00 


Park, Rev. Charles E 




2.00 


Partridge, Dr. Edward L. . . . 




5.00 


Perry, Mrs. Charles F. Graves . . 




5.00 


Perry, Mrs. Edward Hale 




5.00 


Perry, Mr. Gardner Browne . 




5.00 


Perry, Mr. William Graves . 




5.00 


Playf air, Edith, Lady .... 




25.00 


Putnam, Mr. Charles Pickering . 




2.00 


Putnam, Mr. Charles Washburn 




1.00 


Putnam, Miss EUzabeth Cabot . 




2.00 


Putnam, Miss Elizabeth Cabot, the youi 


ige] 


1.00 


Putnam, Miss Frances Cabot 




1.00 


Putnam, Mr. James Jackson 




2.00 


Putnam, Mr. James Jackson, Jr. . 




1.00 


Putnam, Miss Louisa Higginson 




1.00 


Putnam, Miss Marion Cabot 




1.00 


Putnam, Miss Martha 


. 




1.00 



COTTON MEMORIAL 61 

Putnam, Mr. Tracy Jackson .... $1.00 

Quincy, Mrs. Mary Adams 20.00 

Richardson, Mrs. Henry Hyslop . . . 5.00 

Richardson, Mrs. James B 5.00 

Russell, Mrs. Louisa A 25.00 

Saltonstall, Mr. Leverett 100.00 

Sargent, Prof. Charles Sprague .... 25.00 

Shattuck, Mrs. F. C 25.00 

Sohier, Miss Elizabeth P 5.00 

Sohier, Mr. Wm. D 5.00 

Storer, Miss Edith 1.00 

Storer, Miss Emily L 1.00 

Storer, Mrs. John H 1.00 

Storer, Mr. J. Humphreys, Jr 1.00 

Storer, Miss Lydia Lyman 1.00 

Storer, Mr. Robert Treat Paine .... 1.00 

Storer, Mr. Theodore Lyman .... 1.00 

Storrow, Mr. Charles 10.00 

Thayer, Mr. Bayard 350.00 

Thayer, Mr. E. Van R. (deceased) . . . 350.00 

Thayer, Mr. John E 1,000.00 

Thayer, Miss Katherine T 5.00 

Thayer, Mr. Nathaniel 350.00 

Toppan, Miss Sarah M 25.00 

Ware, Miss Mary Lee 4.00 

Williams, Miss Alice Cary 1.00 

Williams, Mr. Edward Cary 1.00 

WilHams, Mrs. Harold 1.00 

Williams, Mr. Harold. Jr 1.00 

Williams, Mr. Malcolm Cary .... 1.00 

Winsor, Mr. Charles Paine 1.00 

Winsor, Miss Dorothy 1.00 

Winsor, Mrs. Frederick 1.00 

Winsor, Mr. Frederick, Jr. 1.00 

Winsor, Mr. John Bryant 1.00 

Winsor, Miss Theresa 1.00 

Woodman, Mrs. Frank K 25.00 

$8,085.00 



62 COTTON MEMORIAL 



In connection with the foregoing state- 
ments relating to the present memorial the 
following inscription from the memorial brass 
placed on the wall of the Southwest Chapel 
of St. Botolph Church, in 1855, by descend- 
ants of Cotton and others, will not be un- 
interesting. The inscription was prepared 
by Edward Everett, whose wife was a Cotton 
descendant. A list of contributors to this 
1855 memorial is also appended. Those in 
the list marked with a star are descendants 
from John Cotton. Those marked with two 
stars are husbands of wives so descended. 




The St. Botolph Memorial. 



COTTON MEMORIAL 63 

In perpetuam Johannis Cottoni memoriam, 

Hujus eclesise multos per annos 

Regnantibus Jacobo et Carolo Vicarii, 

Gravis, diserti, docti, laboriosi. 

Dein propter res sacras in patria misere turbatas, 

Novis sedibus in novo orbe qusesitis, 

Ecclesise primariae Bostoniae Nov-Anglorum 

Nomen hoc venerabile 

In Cottoni honorem deducentis, 

Usque ad finem vitae summa laude 

Summaque in rebus tarn humanis quam divinis 

auctoritate 

Pastoris et doctoris. 

Annis ccxxv. post migrationem ejus peractis, 

Prognati ejus civesque Bostoniensis Americani 

A fratribus Anglicis ad hoc pium munus provocati, 

Ne viri eximii nomen 

Utriusque orbis desiderii et decoris 

Diutius a templo nobili exularet, 

In quo per tot annos oracula divina 

Diligenter docte sancteque enuntiavisset, 

Hoc sacellum restaurandum et hanc tabulam ponendam 

Anno salutis recuperatae mdccclv. 

Libenter grate curaverunt. 

Translation. — In perpetual remembrance of John Cotton, 
who during the reigns of James and Charles was for many years 
a grave, skilful, learned, and laborious vicar of this church. 
Afterwards, on account of unhappily troubled state of sacred 
affairs in his own country, he sought a new settlement in a new 
world, and remained even to the end of his Ufe a pastor and 
teacher of the greatest reputation and of the greatest authority 
in the First Church of Boston in New England, which receives 
this venerable name in honor of Cotton. Two hundred and 
twenty-five years having passed away since his migration, his 
descendants and the American citizens of Boston were invited 
to this pious work by their English brethren, in order that the 
name of an illustrious man, the love and honor of both worlds, 
might not any longer be banished from that noble temple in 
which he diligently, learnedly, and sacredly expounded the 
divine oracles for so many years; and they have willingly and 
gratuitously caused this shrine to be restored, and this tablet 
to be erected, in the year of our recovered salvation, 1855. 



64 COTTON MEMORIAL 

LIST OF THE SUBSCRIBERS. 

Those marked with star are descendants from Cotton; 
marked with two stars, are husbands of wives descended. 

**Charles Francis Adams $100.00 

William Turrell Andrews 50.00 

Nathan Appleton . 100.00 

William Appleton 100.00 

George Bancroft 50.00 

Martin Brimmer 100.00 

*Edward Brooks 100.00 

*Gorham Brooks 100.00 

*Sidney Brooks 100.00 

*Peter Chardon Brooks 100.00 

John P. Gushing ....... 100.00 

**Edward Everett 100.00 

**Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham . . 100.00 

*John Chipman Gray 50.00 

Abbott Lawrence 100.00 

John Amory Lowell 50.00 

Jonathan Phillips 100.00 

William Hickling Prescott .... 50.00 

David Sears 100.00 

Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff . . . 50.00 

Jared Sparks 50.00 

*John Eliot Thayer 250.00 

Frederic Tudor 100.00 

John Collins Warren 50.00 

$2,150.00 

£ s. d. 
$2,150, which realized in exchange on 
England (including interest) . . . 453 

George Peabody & Co 100 

Joshua Bates 100 

Russell Sturges 20 

£673 



2 


4 





















John Cotton 

1585-1633-1652-1907 



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